Ranch Brings History To Life

RANCH OF THE SWALLOWS, N.M. — Her back bent from years of labor, an elderly senora removes a golden- brown loaf of freshly baked bread from an horno, a rounded, mud oven.

The tool she uses is a long-handled, wooden spatula that was whittled from soft pine sometime in the 17th century. The woman herself is perhaps 70 years old, but she wields the heavy implement with ease -- sliding it beneath the hot bread, lifting and placing the loaf on a nearby table.

As the unmistakable bakery aroma reaches a group of wide-eyed children, the senora's captivating face cracks a wide grin of pleasure. Gingerly she breaks the loaf into sections; the children help themselves without hesitation.

Nearby, in a cool, low-ceilinged room, a younger woman cards newly sheared wool with hand-carved tools more than two-centuries old. Another woman kneels comfortably in the shade of an adobe veranda, grinding corn to a fine dust on a stone metate.

At the opposite end of the spacious plaza in which the women work, a handsome young vaquero -- spurs tinkling and wide-brimmed sombrero tossed back on his head -- mounts a buckskin pony and gallops toward a herd of cattle grazing in a nearby pasture.

The time could be 200 years ago; the scene, a village deep in the mountains of Spain or Mexico. It is instead the present, and the place is El Rancho de las Golondrinas, Ranch of the Swallows, a 350-acre living historical museum 15 miles south of Santa Fe, N.M. The ranch depicts with realistic detail the everyday aspect of Spanish colonial life in 17th- and 18th-century New Mexico. It is perhaps the most unusual museum in the world.

Originally the ranch-village of Golondrinas was built in the mid-17th century as an ultimo paraje, last stopping place on the long, dangerous road from Mexico City to Santa Fe that was known as the Camino Real. Northbound travelers usually spent their final evening on the road at the ranch, eating good food and washing a thousand miles of dust from their clothing.

Golondrinas actually served three purposes: resting place, working ranch and protective village for its inhabitants. It was totally dependent upon itself for all the needs of life. Besides the main hacienda, there was a blacksmith shop, village store, several water-powered mills, a church and a number of private homes. In nearby fields were sheep, goats, pigs, cattle and several different types of food crops. Life in the village followed a pattern of hard work and noisy fiesta. There was little money, but the barter system worked well.

Around the mid-1800s, when horseback and wagon travel on the Camino Real ceased, Golondrinas became just another working rancho. With the coming of the railroad in 1880 however, ranch activities stopped and Golondrinas was, for the most part, abandoned. It remained that way until 1939, when a Finnish diplomat with a fascination for Southwest history took up residence on the old ranch. His name was Y.A. Paloheimo, and he moved to Golondrinas with the express purpose of restoring the ultimo paraje to its original state. The job would take 30 years.

Paloheimo began his project by scouring the rural Southwest for traditional buildings that could be moved to the ranch. Most of the original structures were gone, victims of almost three centuries of wind and weather. The few that remained were crumbling and useless. Each building that Paloheimo found was dismantled piece by piece, tagged, trucked to Golondrinas and then reassembled.

The structures were carefully arranged on the land so that each would seem naturally to belong. On one hilltop, Paloheimo constructed an entire authentic mountain village. Near a stream that flows through the property, he rebuilt an ancient grist mill. Next came a blacksmith shop, store, church, outbuildings, corrals and a torreon -- a high, round, stone fort from which the main hacienda could be protected from Indian attack. Paloheimo also sought original tools, furniture, farm implements and artifacts. Those he could not find, he had built -- as near to the originals as was possible.

By 1971, Golondrinas was ready for public visitation and was leased to the Colonial New Mexico Historical Society for operation and maintenance. One thing only was missing -- people. Again, Paloheimo scoured rural New Mexico, this time looking for Spanish-speaking country folk to whom the old methods of cultivation, weaving, carpentry, craft-making and other daily activities of Spanish colonial life might have been passed down through generations. He found many. Almost all were willing to come to Golondrinas and put their knowledge on display.